Ireland: Young Fine Gael Endorse Fine Gael's Irish Language Policy

[anne marie devlin]

This seems rather disingenuous as Fine Gael plan to abolish Irish as a compulsory subject in school - so I find it difficult to see how they plan to revive it.  From next year 50% of the marks for the final school exam for irish will be for aural and oral work.  However, if/when Fine Gael get into government next week, they will abolish the compulsory nature of the subject, so its survival is in the balance.  Irish is typologically very different from English and as such is perceived as difficult.  Students will not continue to study it at school if it is not compulsory subject as they may not get the requisite number of points to get to college.  On another note, it will also make Irish an elite subject and therefore  you will see schools in more working class areas dropping it completely.  This may not seem a problem, but as Irish is an official language and we are (in theory) a bilingual country and Irish is still a requirement for some professions, it will, in essence lead to the exclusion of people - mainly working class - from these professions.
The endorsement of the policy forgets to mention that their plans to revive the language means dropping it as a compulsory subject - shame on FG!
http://www.irishexaminer.com/election/analysis/kenny-under-fire-for-language-policy-145600.html
AM

 


Date: Wed, 16 Feb 2011 11:04:02 -0600
From: francis.hult at utsa.edu
To: edling at lists.sis.utsa.edu
Subject: [Edling] Ireland: Young Fine Gael Endorse Fine Gael's Irish Language Policy




Via lgpolicy...

Young Fine Gael Endorse Fine Gael's Irish Language Policy

Speaking about Fine Gael's plans to reform the way Irish is taught,
Young Fine Gael (YFG) President, Eric Keane, fully endorsed the plan
to invigorate the Irish language and the manner in which it is taught.
"If we do not change the way Irish is taught, the future of Irish is
uncertain.

Full story:
http://www.yfg.ie/component/content/article/26-news/230-young-fine-gael-endorse-fine-gaels-irish-language-policy


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